Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said late on Monday that the Egyptian president had invited the Israeli leader to meet, despite tensions between the two countries at the beginning of Netanyahu’s term.
The statement late on Monday said Netanyahu and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak talked by telephone and Mubarak invited Netanyahu to the Egyptian Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheik for talks. No date was set.
A statement from the official Egyptian news agency on the conversation did not mention an invitation. It said Netanyahu called Mubarak and pledged to work for peace “despite premeditated impressions,” a reference to the new Israeli leader’s past opposition to concessions to the Palestinians.
A Netanyahu-Mubarak meeting could thaw a developing diplomatic freeze around the new Israeli government because of its hawkish makeup and past records of some of its main ministers.
Egypt is reported to be boycotting Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman for publicly cursing Mubarak last year because Mubarak has not made an official visit to Israel.
The Israeli statement said the two leaders agreed to strengthen relations between the countries. In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
Meanwhile, Israel sealed off the West Bank on Monday night for two weeks to curb Palestinian attacks during the Jewish Passover holidays, a military spokesman said.
“The Israeli army considers the holiday periods as very sensitive from the point of view of security,” the spokesman said, announcing that the closure would run until April 19.
“The army will reinforce its state of alert so as to ensure the security of Israeli citizens, while not disrupting, in so far as possible, the daily lives of the Palestinian population,” he said.
Yesterday, Israeli police started demolishing the home of a Palestinian who killed three Israelis in a bulldozer rampage last July.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said yesterday’s demolition was being carried out under heavy police guard.
The Israeli government said such measures deter would-be attackers. The country’s Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that the demolition could go ahead.
A 30-year-old father of two, Hussam Dwayat took his construction vehicle on a rampage down Jerusalem’s Jaffa Road on July 2. He killed three Israelis before an off-duty soldier shot him dead.
The assault was followed by two similar bulldozer attacks carried out by Palestinians in Jerusalem. No Israelis were killed in the later incidents.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
RSS